In October, Ross acquired the servicing rights of $42 billion in mortgages from American Home Mortgage, and assuming the Option One deal is finalized, WL Ross & Co. LLC would be the country’s second-largest subprime servicing portfolio after Countrywide.

A month later, NovaStar Financial agreed to sell its servicing rights to Morgan Stanley’s Saxon Mortgage for $175 million in cash.

Mortgage servicing, which involves the collection of monthly mortgage payments and subsequent late fees, has been one of the few profitable areas of the mortgage industry over the last year and change.

Update: Fremont General has agreed to sell their $1.9 billion servicing portfolio to Carrington Mortgage Services.